The Pentagon is considering a more robust naval presence in the Middle East to escort oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz as gas and oil prices continue to rise, but any operation won’t commence for at least a month, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The Journal, citing two U.S. officials, has said that the U.S. wants to reduce the threat from Iran before undertaking any escort operation, but that could take up to a month or more to accomplish, even as officials continue to downplay concerns over the strait and the impact its closure has had on global energy markets.
I don’t see how we can escort ships without coming under fire. There are going to be hits on US naval ships. The straight is pretty narrow which means that Iran can fire missiles and drones from inland and still be in range. Short of carpet bombing the entire coastline up to like 20 miles inland, I don’t see how this can happen without a serious risk of a US naval vessel being sunk.
Even if there are not hits, there WILL be counter ordinance fire which uses up interceptors that we have a deindling and finite supply of… This whole thing was idiotic straight from the start. You don’t start an optional war with limited resources when a potential future conflict will require those resources. The rumors of China moving on Taiwan in 2027/2028 have been a thing for a while. Instead of having the reserve capacity for a peer or neer peer conflict, the US spooged them all out and gained nothing.
Modern warships carry a variety of anti-missile/drone systems. They’re obviously banking on being able to swat whatever Iran sends their way. Maybe they’re right. Maybe.
Hasn’t worked out for the seven dead and almost two hundred injured US soldiers in the AO so far though.
USA has no effective defenses against Unammed Surface Vehices (marine drones like the ones Iran is using in Hormuz)
LOL Ukraine makes USVs in basements. I’m sure Iran is doing the same.
Shouldn’t have pissed off Ukraine, their real-world know-how is actually really, really useful right now and nobody else has it.
Actually, the saddest part is, in spite of how badly the US have been treating them, Ukraine still offered to train up the US on all their anti drone warfare techniques - techniques specifically developed to combat Iranian drones - and the US told them to fuck off.
And yes, trying to simply suppress Iran’s ability to launch munitions is never going to work. That didn’t even work on the Houthis.
Sad!
I saw a documentary talking about a Destroyers layered defenses but those layers become less effective when threats are closer and that straight is pretty darn narrow. Maybe they will be fine but wow is it a risk.
iran only needs to target the tankers, enough to maybe cause the companies to not sail any tankers into the strait.
What we’re seeing from the conflict right now is that it’s always a risk. No matter how good your defences are, reality stubbornly refuses to conform to what you mathed out in a simulator. And Iran has paid attention to the lessons of the Ukraine war; a mass of cheap munitions is the most effective way to overwhelm a very expensive air defence system. The US is still stuck in the mindset of expecting their enemies to use the biggest, baddest, most expensive weapon possible.
Iran is one of 4 drone superpowers (US insignificant 5th), and a missile peer to US. I doubt that 20 destroyers escorting one ship would survive, or at least not flee the escort mission.